Great. We’ll use the cleaner publication style we agreed on—preserving the wording while presenting it as a polished sermon rather than a preaching outline.
Experience Vs Absolute Truth
Text
2 Peter 1:16-19
Theme
God intends His people to receive truth from His Word, to interpret every experience by that truth, and then, through faith and obedience, to come into a living experience of the realities His Word has already revealed. The facts of God’s Word must inform our faith and feelings.
Introduction
In 2 Peter 1:16-19, the Apostle Peter gives us a reminder of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, an event that Peter was an eyewitness to. Despite the fact that he had experienced this firsthand, Peter tells us that the Word of God is more sure, or more certain, than Peter’s own experience.
There is a certain knowledge that only comes with experience, but our experiences need to be informed by the truth of God’s Word.
Consider the hypothetical example given of Mary.
Mary’s Black and White Room
Mary is locked in a black and white room which has been the extent of her experiential existence. In this room she has access to all the research material that has ever been produced regarding the colour spectrum, and specifically the colour blue.
Mary has read all the books and research papers and understands that the colour blue must exist, but she is still limited to a black and white room.
One day she steps outside the room and sees something blue. Has she gained any knowledge?
The answer would seem to be yes, because now she has an experiential reference point for the knowledge she had accumulated.
In the example above, Mary had all the facts and was able to interpret what she experienced, seeing the colour blue, by the facts.
Without the facts, Mary would have seen the colour blue, but she wouldn’t have the necessary facts in order to properly interpret what she was seeing.
As human beings, we have a very strong tendency to interpret the world through the lens of our experiences.
We may have learned about something, but until we experience that thing it remains conceptual rather than experiential. As soon as we experience it, it becomes real to us in a way that it never had been before.
In truth, man was created to experience the world through the lens of what God told us was reality, not the lens of what our experience tells us is reality.
A return to elevating the Word of God above our own experiences is a return to how God intended things to be.
The Experiential Tendency Explained
Genesis 3:1-6
The Example of the Fall
In the Garden of Eden, God commanded Adam and Eve that they were not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Adam and Eve obviously could conceptualize evil, otherwise the command would have made no sense.
Before the fall, Adam knew what evil was because God had defined it, but it wasn’t until after the fall that Adam knew evil from the inside because he had become a sinner himself.
Adam and Eve understood there was a right path and a wrong path, but they hadn’t yet experienced what it was to choose the wrong path.
So, what would it mean for them to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?
God never intended for man to experience evil, and man was carefully placed in a perfect world which was free of evil.
Man was made in the image of God, in the image of the nature and character of God that is.
God possesses perfect knowledge of evil without ever committing evil or being morally corrupted by it. It is the personal participation in evil that is what destroyed the picture of man as God’s image bearer.
Rebellion Against God’s Word
At the root of the fall was rebellion against God’s Word in exchange for a personal experience.
The Serpent Questioned God’s Word
The serpent who tempted Eve began by questioning the Word of God.
Genesis 3:1b
“Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”
Genesis 3:4
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:”
At the very beginning of the fall of man there was a question mark placed over the Word of God followed by an outright rejection of God’s Word.
God had told Adam and Eve what they could and couldn’t eat, and God’s Word had been enough for them up until this point in time.
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
God gave man His Word and that was all that man needed in order to live a perfect and fulfilling life that was pleasing to God and beneficial to man.
The Serpent Appealed to Human Experience
The second thing the serpent did was appeal to the human senses and emphasise personal experience over God’s Word.
Genesis 3:5-6a
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof…”
The serpent’s promise of forbidden knowledge appealed to the very same lusts that John warns Christians about.
1 John 2:16
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (it was good for food), and the lust of the eyes (pleasant to the eyes), and the pride of life (to be desired to make one wise), is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
Although Eve was deceived by the serpent, Adam made the choice to elevate his personal experience above the Word of God.
Every man and woman since Adam has had to choose between trusting in our own wisdom, which is formed by our experiences, or trusting the Word of God.
The Problem Since the Fall
1 Corinthians 3:19
Inherent within us is the tendency to trust what we experience with our senses, in particular our sight, far more than we trust what we are told by someone else.
We are heavily dependent on our experiences for formulating our worldview. This is a major reason why people find it so difficult to accept the existence of a God they cannot see.
God wants us to take Him at His Word, but we want Him to reveal Himself to us in a more experiential way, so that we can begin to rationalise our belief in His existence.
Examples include:
- The Pentecostal movement with its false “tongues,” an attempt to give people an experiential element to their faith.
- The Roman Catholic system, which offers people a physical religious experience while discouraging individuals from reading the Bible and getting to know God personally through His Word.
It is actually a departure from what God intended when He gave us His written Word.
2 Peter 1:19
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed…”
The Experiential Tendency Informed
Our Experiences Are to Be Interpreted Through a Biblical Lens
God’s Word Must Govern Our Experiences
Our experiences are supposed to instruct us, but they, in turn, are meant to be informed by our understanding of God and the world He created as revealed in His Word.
If God’s Word is to be the objective standard by which we interpret every experience, then we must have confidence that we possess that Word. If the standard itself is viewed as uncertain or constantly changing, people will naturally begin looking elsewhere—often to their own experiences—for certainty.
This is another grave danger in the countless modern Bible translations that undermine the absolute truth of God’s Word.
Romans 1:19-22
“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead… Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
When we reject God’s revelation of Himself through the Bible, we are left to our own vain imaginations regarding who God is and our place in the world He created.
This, in turn, leads to atheistic humanism, which is spoken of at the end of the passage:
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
Mysticism and Humanism
There are two major philosophical errors that arise when God’s Word is no longer the authority by which we interpret reality.
Mysticism
Mysticism seeks a higher knowledge that cannot simply be taught but must be experienced firsthand.
Rather than having God’s truth govern experience, mysticism makes experience itself the governing truth.
This is why mysticism has found such fertile ground in much of modern Christianity. Experiences become the measure of truth instead of Scripture.
Instead of asking,
“What does the Bible say?”
people begin asking,
“What have I experienced?”
The result is that experience becomes the authority.
Humanism
Humanism reaches the opposite conclusion.
Rather than elevating spiritual experience, it denies the supernatural altogether and teaches that man himself determines what is real and true.
Human reason becomes the ultimate authority.
Whether it is mysticism or humanism, both make the same fundamental mistake—they dethrone God’s Word.
Do Experiences Help or Hinder?
Provided our experiences are interpreted through the lens of God’s Word, they can be extremely beneficial.
God never intended us to live without experience.
Rather, He intended us to experience the realities His Word had already revealed.
Knowing God Personally
Even our understanding of who God is can be furthered by experiencing Him personally through a relationship with Him.
Someone may study theology for years and possess an extensive knowledge of God, but unless they enter through the door of faith into a personal relationship with Him, that knowledge remains incomplete.
The facts are true.
The experience confirms those facts.
Knowing a Person
The same principle applies in everyday life.
You may hear all about a man named Rob Magill and know many facts about him.
You may know where he was born, where he lives, what work he does, and even know many stories about him.
But until you actually meet him and develop a relationship with him, you do not truly know him personally.
Experience adds a personal dimension to knowledge that facts alone cannot provide.
Experiencing the Love of God
The same is true spiritually.
We can hear of the love of God, read about the love of God, and study the love of God.
But until we experience that love through salvation, we can never fully understand its breadth and depth.
The experiential aspects of God’s love and our relationship with Him are certainly subjective.
However, when those experiences are interpreted through God’s Word, they become reassuring and take on a far deeper meaning.
Ephesians 3:17-19
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Notice Paul’s language.
He speaks of knowing the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.
There is a dimension of knowing that comes only through experiencing the realities that God’s Word has already declared to be true.
Experience Must Never Become the Standard
It is important, however, that we keep the biblical order intact.
God did not intend our experiences to determine truth.
Truth comes from God.
Experience follows.
Our experiences are valuable because they confirm and deepen our understanding of what God has already revealed.
Whenever experience is elevated above Scripture, confusion follows.
Whenever Scripture governs experience, truth is preserved.
Summary
God intended for us to experience life.
He intended for us to experience His creation.
He intended for us to experience a personal relationship with Him.
Yet He never intended our experiences to determine what is true.
Rather, His Word is the unchanging anchor that grounds our experiences in reality and enables us to rightly understand what we experience.
Conclusion
As we conclude, we need to remember the proper relationship between truth and experience.
The world teaches us to trust our feelings, our senses, and our experiences above everything else. God’s Word teaches the opposite.
God reveals truth first.
Faith receives that truth.
Experience then confirms and deepens our understanding of what God has already declared.
The order is vitally important.
When truth governs experience, our lives are anchored upon something that never changes.
When experience governs truth, we are left with shifting opinions, unstable emotions, and subjective beliefs that can never provide certainty.
The serpent’s first attack in the Garden of Eden was to undermine confidence in God’s Word and entice mankind to pursue knowledge through personal experience instead.
Ever since that day, mankind has continued to elevate experience above revelation.
As believers, we must resist that tendency.
We must determine that the Word of God will remain the final authority in every area of life.
When our experiences agree with God’s Word, they become a wonderful confirmation of His truth.
When our experiences appear to conflict with God’s Word, it is our experiences—not God’s Word—that must be questioned.
God intended His people to experience life, His creation, and a personal relationship with Him.
He intended us to know His love, His grace, His peace, and His faithfulness in a living and personal way.
But He never intended those experiences to become the standard by which truth is measured.
His Word remains the standard.
Final Summary
- God reveals truth.
- Faith accepts that truth before experience confirms it.
- Experience strengthens our confidence in the truth God has already revealed.
In the Garden of Eden, the serpent convinced man to elevate personal experience above the Word of God.
As Christians, we need to put things back in their proper order by taking God at His Word and allowing His Word to govern the way we view ourselves, the world we live in, and every experience we encounter.
2 Peter 1:19
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed…”
May we be people who believe God’s Word first, interpret our experiences through its truth, and then rejoice as our experiences continually confirm the certainty of what God has already said.